Businesses that have had to bench costly enterprise software because users found it too onerous could learn a thing or two from FarmVille and other popular online social games.

"Most people will spend five hours playing Angry Birds, but won't spend three minutes to learn new business applications," says Rajat Paharia, founder and chief product officer at gamification company Bunchball. One CIO, he says, almost wrote off a 200,000-seat collaboration software license investment because he couldn't figure out how to boost end-user utilization.

For CIOs banking on enterprise software to revolutionize their business, non-adoption is not an option. Instead, they need to find a way to engage users.

Enter the gamification collaboration of enterprise applications. Gamification involves the integration of game design concepts such as goal setting, real-time feedback, and voluntary participation to non-game settings such as sales force automation, call center, and help desk support.